New York aiming to host cricket's new American Premier League

Only three months have passed since Sir Allen Stanford's cricketing empire collapsed in scandal and mutterings of alleged missing billions but already another American has taken his place with the aim of taking cricket Stateside.

Big in America? Adam Hollioake has signed up to play in Jay Mir's American Premier LeaguePhoto: GETTY IMAGES

In October this year a Twenty20 tournament will be played in New York with the backing of the world famous New York Yankees baseball team. Two former England players, Adam Hollioake and Graeme Hick, have already signed up to play in the American Premier League and more are expected to follow suit in the near future.

Its acronym, the APL, gives a clear indication that the league hopes to build on the success of the IPL, the Indian Premier League. Jay Mir, the American entrepreneur whose company is promoting the tournament, hopes to tap into the large Asian expat community in New York and claims to have held talks with major broadcasters who are keen to pay for rights to show the action.

Matches will be played at the home of Minor League baseball team, the Staten Island Yankees, which has a backdrop of the Manhattan skyline, a view that would challenge any of the world's great cricket grounds.

"We have completed everything and the stage is set," Mir told Telegraph Sport. "We have a contract with the stadium, we have one of the top event managers working on the project, the New York Yankees are big backers and will organise the event for us. They will help manage security which is obviously a big thing these days as well as the crowd in the stadium.

"We have achieved something that nobody has ever managed in the history of cricket in this country and we have done it only one month. People should be more supportive of us. Our event goal is just to promote cricket in America and the response we have had so far has been phenomenal. It is very much like our slogan – A cricket Revolution in America.

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"There are 15 million South Asian people in the USA and they are all hungry for cricket and there are a large number of those who want to see cricket in New York."

Six teams will take part including a World XI, which will be coached by the former England spin bowler John Emburey, and the tournament will be held between Oct 6-26.

But already the project has fallen foul of suspicious cricketing authorities burned by their involvement with Stanford. The International Cricket Council have ruled it an unofficial event and the England & Wales Cricket Board have told the counties to warn players against taking part.

Unless it is given official sanction, the first step of which is to gain the backing of the United States Cricket Association, any players appearing in the APL will be banned from domestic and international cricket.

"People have tried and failed to bring cricket to America in the past but that is because they did not have our business plan," said Mir. "We want to go down the avenue of getting official status but nothing will stop us from going ahead. The potential is massive and the same goes for all over the United States but it has never been brought together and done in a professional way. If that is done then the game will flourish in the US."

The Stanford name brings a defensive response. "We have nothing to do with Stanford whatsoever," said Mir. "He did his thing and obviously invested a lot of money into West Indian cricket but not in the United States. If he had then it may have been a very different ball game."